On Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 10:58 PM, Michael Blanpied
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Dear FLL Coaches,
You and your transportation-immersed teams might find this pretty interesting. A 19-year-old guy has invented a motorcycle called the Uno, which uses only one wheel (actually, a pair of side-by-side wheels) and operates like an electric-powered unicycle.
The Uno uses active balancing and rider detection, accelerometers, and feedback--similar to a Segway scooter--to remain upright and move. It's a very cool concept, and the prototype looks very cool as well. The young inventor has won several awards, started a company, received venture capital funding, and is developing the bike.
The web site, http://www.the-uno.com/, contains pictures and links to several magazine article and awards. The site includes a video of the 19-year-old inventor presenting the idea to the Dragons--a panel of venture capitalists--hoping that they'll invest in his company so he can develop the bike; that video includes footage of him riding the Uno.
On a related topic, several people have built miniature Segway scooters with the NXT kit, using either a light, ultrasonic or accelerometer sensor as the feedback input. Building and programming a self-balancing robot is a neat project for more advanced NXTists. For those wanting a further challenge, the robot can be controlled from afar using Bluetooth, with a laptop, cell phone or another NXT brick as the controller. There are examples posted to http://mindstorms.lego.com/NXTLOG/.
--
Cheers,
Mike Blanpied
Reston, VA
2006 #4809 Nano People
2007 #1666 Power Bunnies
2008 #5013 BLT--Brilliant LEGO Team
______________________________________________________________
To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE YOUR SETTINGS, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave the list".
If you want to join the VADCFLL-ADMIN-L mailing list - to which FLL administrative announcements will be distributed - visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-admin-l.html and select "Join or leave the list".